It might sound gross, but human waste may bring future astronauts back from the Moon, new research says, by converting it into methane to power NASA rockets.

On current NASA missions, fecal matter has been collected and stored in containers until it can be loaded onto special space cargo vehicles that burn up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. While this works just fine for shorter missions, it presents a problem for more long-term trips, not to mention it's just impractical.

This may sound gross, but human waste also has another use. It can be used as radiation shielding for the crew, anything with lots of hydrogen and hydrocarbons in it blocks deadly gamma rays, cosmic rays and charged particles from the Sun or trapped in a planet's radiation belts. Water is a very good radiation shield too, and so is hydrocarbon based fuel such as diesel fuel. Human waste and sewage would have lots of both, and that means it could be used as shielding before it's turned into propellant. Given that weight and space will likely be at a premium, using human waste as shielding for the crew and sensitive electronics will likely be necessary just to keep the mass of the ship within reason. All that is needed for that is to place the water and waste tanks around the crew compartment, or at least an area that can be used as an emergency shelter to protect them if a Solar flare or other radiation surge strikes the spacecraft.

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